BX 9869 
.C85 S8 
Copy 1 



SKETCH 



LIFE OF DR. CROSBY, 




CHARLESTOWN, N.H. 



By REV. LIVINGSTON STONE. 



PASTOR OF THE SOUTH PARISH. CHARLESTOWN. N. 



BOSTON: 
PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SONS. 
1866. 



Glass 
Book 



SKETCH 

OF THE 



LIFE OF DR. CROSBY, 



OF 

CHAELESTOWN, N.H. 



By REV. LIVINGSTON STONE, 

PASTOR OF THE SOUTH PARISH, CHARLESTOWN, N.H. 



BOSTON: 
PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SONS. 
1866. 




1 3 35^/ 
'tt. 



SKETCH. 



On the 30th of December, 1864, there occurred in 
Cambridge, Mass. the death of a man whose services 
deserve to be registered in some worthier testimonial 
than the following simple sketch. 

Whatever may be its inadequacy, however, we have 
at least this reflection for a compensation, that the 
more modest and simple the memoir which records 
his life, the more it will accord with the wishes and 
unassuming character of the deceased. The person 
of whom we speak is the Rev. Dr. Jaazaniah Crosby, 
who was, for over fifty years, the pastor of the Uni- 
tarian Society at Charlestown, N.H., where he earned 
a name, which, if less widely known, is no less hon- 
ored than that of many who have labored in larger 
spheres of usefulness. 

Dr. Crosby was born in Hebron, N.H., on the 
3d of April, 1780. He was the son of Jaazaniah 
and Elizabeth Crosby. His father was from Bil- 
lerica : his mother was from Pepperell. Very few 
incidents can now be gathered, of his early life. 

But it is well known, that the humble circumstances 
of his parents, and the less favorable facilities of the 
time for obtaining knowledge, threw many difficulties 



4 



in the path which he early decided upon taking, of 
securing for himself a liberal education. The diffi- 
culties of his way, however, he overcame by a perse- 
verance, which, for a boy of his age, is creditable in 
the extreme. 

Writing and ciphering on a board with chalk and 
charcoal ; walking two miles to school and back ; pre- 
paring himself, with only eighteen months' schooling, 
for Exeter Academy ; walking, when prepared, to the 
academy itself, eighty miles distant, for examination, — 
are among the things which testify to the persevering 
spirit that surmounted obstacles to which a less reso- 
lute will would have succumbed. With the energy 
manifested in his preparation for Exeter Academy, 
we are not surprised to learn, that, two years after 
his entrance there, he passed the examination for 
admission into Harvard College, where he spent the 
usual four years of a college career, graduating in 
the class of 1804. His college course was character- 
ized by the same perseverance which marked the 
period of his preparation. 

He struggled manfully against the disadvantage of 
his poverty, and met his college expenses by working 
between recitations, and particularly by doing writ- 
ing in the office of the clerk of the Court. 

When he graduated from college, he was rewarded 
for his diligence, by receiving the appointment of 
teacher in the academy, to which, six years ago, he 
had walked the eighty miles of his journey, a poor 
and obscure boy. A year after, however, he turned 
his attention to . the study of the profession which 



5 



afterward became the work of his long life ; and, in 
1805, following the custom of the times, he placed 
himself, as a theological student, under the charge of 
a neighboring clergyman. The person whom he se- 
lected for his instructor was Dr. Appleton, afterward 
distinguished as President of Bowdoin College. 

During his studies with Dr. Appleton, he passed 
through the stage of experience common, we be- 
lieve, to most young aspirants for the ministry, if not 
for other professions, during which the discouraging 
appearance of the difficulties of their profession, 
disclosed by their nearer view of its actual character, 
begets the impression that they have mistaken their 
calling. 

The distrust which Dr. Crosby then felt, was per- 
haps augmented by the divergence — which his future 
course shows to have become greater and greater as 
he grew older — between his religious views and the 
prevailing theology of the time ; a difference which 
his native honesty of mind alone, would have pre- 
vented him from setting aside by a passive ignoring of 
its existence. However that may be, Dr. Crosby's 
stage of discouragement coming at a more fortunate 
time than it does to some others, before the actual 
assumption of his profession, and therefore at a time 
when he was free to entertain the question of follow- 
ing it, — he laid his case before Dr. Buckminster, of 
Portsmouth, N.H., and requested his advice. The 
doctor kindly listened to his case, and counselled him 
to proceed with his profession. 

In accordance with this counsel, the young man 



6 



returned to his studies ; and, having finished them, he 
received, on the 11th of May, 1808, from the Pis- 
^cataqua Association, a license to preach, drawn up in 
the handwriting of his old friend in need, Dr. Buck- 
minster. His religious differences with the Calvinistic 
theology of the period began to show themselves very 
soon after he assumed the actual duties of his profes- 
sion. Indeed, there were some dissenting votes in the 
association which gave him his license to preach, on 
account of the heterodoxy of the views which his 
examination disclosed. 

A year or two afterward, having received a call 
from the society at Lyndeborough, the council which 
assembled to ordain him voted it inexpedient to pro- 
ceed with his ordination, on the ground that his 
religious opinions were not sufficiently orthodox. 

Not long after, having received a call from the 
society at Freeport, Me., he declined it, because of a 
considerable opposition in the parish, for the same 
reasons which influenced the Lyndeborough council. 
Finding, however, a year later at Charlestown, N.H., 
a society whose theological views were more con- 
genial with his own, he received and accepted a call 
there, and was ordained over the parish on the 17th 
of October, 1810. From that time until the day 
of his death, he remained the pastor of the parish 
over which he was first ordained ; furnishing an in- 
stance, which has few parallels, of a life-settlement 
of over fifty years. The society at Charlestown, when 
he came to it, was Orthodox Congregationalist, though 
it is to be presumed, from subsequent events, that it 



7 



was somewhat tinctured with the more liberal views 
of the Unitarians, who were just then coming into 
notice. 

After his ordination, Dr. Crosby gave free rein to 
the liberal opinions he had always to some extent en- 
tertained ; and, before a long time had elapsed, he 
came out publicly as a Unitarian. His people, 
quietly following in the same path, endorsed the 
change without dissension ; and both minister and 
society remained Unitarian from that time. 

Dr. Crosby continued sole pastor of this people till 
his whitening hair, which had grown gray in their 
service, gave warning, that, though the inward man 
was renewed day by day, the outward man must soon 
succumb to the infirmities of age. 

During this long period, he preached regularly to 
a people who clung around him with the warmest 
affection and reverence ; and who, under the happy 
influence of his teaching and example, held the unity 
of the spirit in the bonds of peace, and maintained a 
prosperous and vigorous society during his whole ad- 
ministration* The burden of his preaching, which 
had so excellent an influence upon his parish, might 
be said to be the song of the angels at Bethlehem, 
" Glory to God in the highest ; and, on earth, peace, 
good will toward men,'' so thoroughly were his ser- 



* In order to avoid giving a false impression, it is proper to nGte here, 
that fragments of the society have, at various times, broken away from the 
original stock, on account of theological difference, and have established 
successively a Methodist, Orthodox, and Episcopal Society, of which the first 
mentioned has now become extinct 



8 



mons imbued with the spirit of this first Christmas 
anthem. 

His youthful and buoyant heart, which age could 
not reach, and which was always kept warm with the 
love of his fellow-men, did much to arrest the advance 
of the ravages of time upon his physical frame ; and 
it was not till the forty-sixth year of his pastorate, 
and the seventy-sixth of his life, that the strength so 
long devoted to his people declined to such an extent, 
as to cause him to require the aid of a colleague to 
share his labors. 

Even after that time he preached at intervals until 
the Thanksgiving day of 1862, on which occasion he 
read the last sermon which was heard from his lips. 
He had two colleagues before his death. 

The first was Rev. Adams Ayer, who was installed 
at Chaiiestown, in June, 1855. The second was Rev. 
Livingston Stone, who succeeded Mr. Ayer, in June, 
1864. In the winter of 1864-5, Dr. Crosby, now 
eighty-four years old and very infirm, met with a 
calamity which was of a most serious character to an 
old man like himself, and which without doubt very 
much hastened his departure. 

At five o'clock, on the morning of the 15th of De- 
cember, he discovered his residence to be on fire, and 
immediately found that the fire had progressed so far 
as to render it dangerous to stay in the house a mo- 
ment. 

Although it was still dark out of doors, and the 
thermometer at zero, and the snow a foot deep, there 
was no alternative left for this infirm man of over 



9 



eighty years, but to leave the burning building at 
once, without waiting for time to dress. So, throwing 
a shawl about his shoulders, barefooted and thinly 
clad as he was, he hurried out into the snow and 
wintry night-air, with his wife and servant, to escape 
the flames. 

It was some time before any one could be roused ; 
and during the space which intervened between the 
discovery of the fire and^ his safe reception in a neigh- 
bor's house, an interval of many minutes, he was ex- 
posed to all the severities of an unusually inclement 
December night. 

In two hours his house was entirely destroyed ; and 
his books, papers, clothes, even the church records 
covering a period of almost a century, every thing in 
fact which he possessed, except a few articles which 
were hastily taken during the fire from the front part 
of the house, were consumed by the flames. It was a 
sad misfortune for the old man's waning strength to 
bear ; and, though he sustained his losses with a 
wonderful serenity and composure, the event was 
undoubtedly the immediate occasion of his death, 
which took place two weeks after. 

The circumstances in which the burning of his 
house had left him were no sooner known than peti- 
tions came to him from friends in every quarter, to 
make his home with them. 

He had a strong inclination to stay with his friends 
in Chaiiestown, but finally yielded to the urgent 
wishes of his sons, to visit one of them at Cambridge- 
port, Mass. 

2 



10 



While here, although he never lost the serenity of 
mind which he maintained through the recent trying 
events, and though he received every attention which 
filial affection could bestow, the effects of his expo- 
sure and subsequent exertions, nevertheless, proved to 
be more than his aged frame could endure ; and, fall- 
ing sick a few days after, with an attack of erysipelas, 
he died on the 30th of December, 1864. Dr. Crosby 
was first married on the 30th of April, 1811. His 
wife, Anne R. Parker, of "Wolfboro, N.H., lived but 
a year and a half after their marriage, giving birth 
to a child just before her death. 

On the 30th of November, 1814, Dr. Crosby mar- 
ried again. His second wife was Huldah R. Sage, 
daughter of the clergyman at Westminster, Vt. With 
her he lived until April, 1835, when she was also re- 
moved by death, after having become the mother of 
ten children. 

In November, 1838, he married again. His third 
wife, Elizabeth Allen, of Brain tree, has survived him ; 
but, owing to the unfortunate circumstance of the 
burning of their house, is not now residing in 
Charlestown* Besides some articles in the periodi- 
cals of the time, Dr. Crosby's published productions 
were — ■ a Sermon, which he was invited to deliver 
before the Legislature of New Hampshire ; a Sermon 

* It is a singular fact, that, although Dr. Crosby lived so long, and brought 
up so many children, in Charlestown, there is now, since the destruction of 
his house and the removal of liis wife to another State, no one of his family 
or descendants, nor any visible trace of his residence, left there ; and only 
the good he has done, and his memory in the hearts of his people, bear wit- 
ness to the life he spent among them. 



11 



preached at the Dedication of his newly-built Church, 
in 1843; - a Sermon delivered in 1860 at the Semi- 
centennial Anniversary of his Ordination, a well- 
remembered occasion in Charlestown ; and a History 
of Charlestown, N.H., now preserved among the col- 
lections of the New-Hampshire Historical Society. 

In 1853, Harvard College paid Dr. Crosby a well- 
deserved tribute to his long and faithful services, by 
conferring on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 
Dr. Crosby, though not widely known, was much 
loved and esteemed by all within the circle of his 
acquaintance. In fact, he had the universal affection 
and respect of all who knew him, from the little chil- 
dren he had only patted on the cheek, to the old men 
who had known him for a lifetime. 

This is not difficult to account for ; for being him- 
self, at heart, a friend to all, and having in his large 
soul a place for the kindly remembrance of all whom 
he had met, the friendly feeling that came back to 
him was but the natural response to the kindliness 
of his own heart. In no man, more than in him, was 
fulfilled, in respect to friendliness of feeling, the 
Scripture saying, " Give, and it shall be given unto 
you ; good measure, pressed down and shaken to- 
gether and running over, shall men give into your 
bosom. For with the same measure ye mete withal, 
it shall be measured to you again." 

This sentiment of attachment and regard, which 
was inspired by Dr. Crosby in those whom he had 
met, has not by any means terminated with his life ; 
but his memory is still held in universal affection and 



12 



reverence in the community where he lived, and es- 
pecially in the hearts of those who have known him 
longest. The perfect correctness of Dr. Crosby's life, 
and the willing and unanimous endorsement which it 
received, from those who had seen him day by day for 
over fifty years, are circumstances which we cannot 
omit to mention. 

The remark, " No man can say aught against Par- 
son Crosby," which was often made by one neighbor 
of his parish to another or to strangers, when the 
doctor's name was mentioned, shows how well the 
correctness of his life was known and appreciated in 
his own parish, where the people knew him best. So 
far indeed was he from having any scandal attached 
to his name, that he seems never to have been charged 
with those common and lesser faults which are 
merely the result of thoughtlessness, imprudence, or 
forge tfulness. 

Always faithful in all his relations to his flock, 
careful to visit all, especially thoughtful to visit the 
sick, prepared for all his public duties, seeming to 
hold all his people in his mind always, and wedding 
himself to them for life, he presented an example of 
the ancient race of faithful pastors, of which so few 
instances are left in these strangely altered times. 

The fact that his outward life was so far above re- 
proach^ refers us back to an uncommon purity of 
mind and fidelity of purpose as its source ; for such 
fruits could only come from such a tree. Dr. Crosby 
was a remarkably genial man ; and all who came in 
contact with him felt at once a genial chord in their 



13 



own nature, responding to the cheering influence of 
his presence. 

Always seeing the cheerful, sunny side of life him- 
self, he had the faculty, which genial persons have, of 
bringing it out to the sight of others ; which had the 
effect of leaving a singularly cheering and happy im- 
pression, even on any one who had merely a chat or 
chance meeting with him, however short. 

There are few who, by their power of striking a 
happy chord of sympathy in those they meet, can 
win the hearts of all around them as he was able 
to do. 

And to a soul, full of genial and happy feeling, 
were not wanting the words to give it ready and 
graceful expression. A cheering salutation, a happy 
remark, or a playful jest, was always ready on his 
lips to carry the sunshine of his own heart into the 
hearts of those about him ; and, besides being always 
ready with the impromptu repartee, he had, stored 
away in his memory, a rich hoard of anecdotes, from 
which he seemed to be able to draw indefinitely, 
to enliven as well as to illustrate his conversation. 
With his genial temperament was not joined the 
unstable habit so often accompanying that tempera- 
ment, and converting it into a snare. But, on the 
contrary, stability of character was his forte. 

His conduct was governed by well-pondered princi- 
ples ; and these controlling elements of his life were 
firmly anchored in his soul, and were subject to none 
of the fickle vacillations which often make sport of 
less stable characters. 



14 



They were formed in righteousness, and, knowing 
their strength, he stood upon them as upon a rock ; 
and the righteousness on which he rested, and in 
which he trusted, seemed to impart a degree of its 
enduring stability to his character. 

In every event of life, he was the same steadfast, 
serene, cheerful man. In times of excitement and 
alarm, his composure and self-possession never for- 
sook him. 

In the day of good fortune, he was not over-elated 
with his prosperity. In the day of ill fortune, he was 
not unduly depressed with his adversity ; but, through 
all, he maintained the even tenor of mind which 
characterized his whole career. 

Of the stability of character which he possessed, 
and which seemed to be the foundation on which his 
composure and serenity rested, there is a striking ex- 
emplification in his long pastorate at Chaiiestown, 
where, without changing or wishing to change his lot, 
he remained from the time of his settlement to the 
end of his unusually long life. Dr. Crosby's fellow- 
townsmen, will long miss his venerable form in their 
streets, his kindly smile and friendly salutation, which 
always carried a benediction with them. 

His former parishioners will long miss his well- 
known voice in the pulpit, where, though he had not 
preached for two years, he had taken part in the ser- 
vices up to the last days of his life ; and all who 
knew him, whether high or low, rich or poor, old or 
young, will feel that they have lost a friend. 

But there is consolation in the reflection that his 



15 



death was not an untimely one. He had fulfilled the 
measure of mortal years. He had even passed that 
exterior boundary, beyond which we are told that 
our strength js but labor and sorrow. Like the full 
corn in the ear, his spirit had ripened for the harvest, 
and was ready to be gathered into the heavenly 
garner. 

We are thankful that he lived so long, thankful 
that so faithful a " life-record was closed without a 
sad appendix of dotage and decay ; " and we can all 
now rejoice with him that his earthly labors are fin- 
ished, the burdens of age resigned, and his cross ex- 
changed for his crown. 

He was faithful over the few things entrusted to 
him here : he has gone to be made ruler over many 
things. 



APPENDIX, 



REV. JAAZANIAH CROSBY, D.D. 

The following sketch of Dr. Crosby, as will be seen by the initials, is 
from the graceful pen of Dr. Sprague, of Albany. It was first published in 
the " Christian Kegister" of Oct. 4, 1865. 

Jaazaniah Crosby, a son of Jaazaniah and Elizabeth (Gilson) 
Crosby, was born in Hebron, N.H., April 3, 1780. His father 
was originally from Billerica ; his mother, from Pepperell. His 
father was not a professor of religion ; but his mother was a 
communicant in a Congregational Church under the care of the 
Rev. Thomas Page, an uneducated, but worthy and sensible man. 
The family were in humble circumstances ; and he himself worked 
on a farm until he was eighteen years old, during which period he 
attended school not more than a year and a half, and then the 
school was distant from his father's house two miles. But he had 
a decided passion for acquiring knowledge ; and he would indulge 
it, though, in doing so, he had to battle with the ills of poverty. 
He used to indulge his intellectual tastes by writing with chalk and 
coal on a board, and ciphering in the same way. At the age of 
eighteen, he went to Exeter Academy, walking the whole distance 
(eighty miles) ; and, either then or at a subsequent time, he paid 
all the expenses of his journey with three and ninepence ! After 
studying at Exeter two years on a charity foundation, he entered 
the Freshman Class at Harvard College in 1800, and, during 
the whole four years, lived in the family of a lady who gave 
him his board ; and his other expenses he was able to meet, partly 
by means of some appropriation from a college fund for indigent 
students, and partly by writing in the office of the clerk of the 
court. 

Immediately after his graduation, in 1804, he returned to 
Exeter Academy as an assistant teacher, and remained there for 

3 



18 



one year, at the close of which he went to the neighboring town 
of Hampton, and placed himself under the care of Dr. Appleton 
(afterwards President of Bowdoin College) as a theological 
student ; meanwhile availing himself of a fund at Exeter for the 
support of indigent young men in their immediate preparation for 
the ministry. During the time that he was prosecuting his theo- 
logical studies, he became quite discouraged, and thought he had 
mistaken his vocation : whereupon he consulted Dr. Buckminster, 
of Portsmouth ; and the doctor, though fully aware of his anti- 
Calvinistic tendencies, advised him to proceed. He was licensed 
to preach by the Piscataqua Association, on the 11th of May, 
1808 ; Dr. Buckminster acting as scribe, and writing the certificate 
of his licensure. Two or three of the ministers voted against 
him, from being dissatisfied with his religious views ; among whom 
was a Mr. Thurston, who afterwards became a Unitarian. He 
preached his first sermon at Greenland, and afterwards preached 
for a short time at Lyndeborough ; and the next year (1809) 
preached there as a candidate for three or four months, and 
received a call to settle, though it was very far from being unani 
mous. He, however, accepted the call, and the council called to 
ordain him assembled, and examined him for three hours ; and 
though there was a majority in favor of sustaining his examina- 
tion, yet, in view of the divided state of the parish, it was 
thought inexpedient to proceed to his ordination. He said the 
minister of Temple asked him, if an unregenerate man was not 
as bad as the devil ; and, when he replied in the negative, his 
answer seemed to occasion surprise. In 1809 he preached as a 
candidate at Freeport, Me., for three or four months, and received 
a call to settle there ; but declined it on account of a strong oppo- 
sition. On the last Sabbath in March, 1810, he preached first at 
Charlestown, N.H., as a candidate, though he had previously 
supplied the pulpit there a few Sabbaths about the close of 1808. 
In due time, the church and congregation gave him a call to 
become their pastor, and he accepted it ; and was ordained on the 
17th of October, 1810, — the Rev. Jacob Abbot, of Hampton 
Falls, preaching the ordination sermon. 

In 1853 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from 
Harvard College. He continued sole pastor until June, 1855, 
when he was relieved by the accession of Rev. Adams Ayer 
(a graduate of Harvard in 1818) as his colleague. He (Mr, 



19 



Ayer) resigned his charge after a little more than four years. 
Their next settled minister was Mr. Livingston Stone (a gradu- 
ate of Harvard in 1857), who still continues with them. Though 
Dr. Crosby resigned the main charge of his parish in 1855, he 
continued to preach occasionally till 1863 ; but, from that time, 
was prevented from attempting any public service by his liability 
to vertigo, which he considered- as foreshadowing apoplexy. His 
general health, however, continued good ; and his spirits seemed 
at my last meeting with him, a few months ago, just as buoyant 
as ever. 

He was married on the 30th of April, 1811, to Anne Rust 
Parker, of Wolfboro', N.H. (by whom he had one child, now 
Mrs. Dr. Cazneau Palfrey), who died immediately after the child's 
birth, and about a year and a half after their marriage. On the 
13th of November, 1814, he was married, a second time, to 
Huldah Robinson, daughter of the Rev. Sylvester Sage, of West- 
minster, Vt.; who died April, 1835, the mother of ten chil- 
dren, seven of whom still survive. On the 30th of November, 
1838, he was married, a third time, to Elizabeth Allen, of 
Braintree, Mass., who survives to mourn her husband's death. 
Each of his marriages has been to him a source of great comfort 
and blessing. 

Dr. Crosby published a Sermon delivered before the Legislature 
of New Hampshire, 1830 ; a Sermon at the Dedication of his 
Church, 1843 ; a Sermon at the Semi-centennial of his Ordination, 
1860 ; and a History of Charlestown, N.H., among the Collec- 
tions of the New-Hampshire Historical Society ; besides some 
anonymous articles in periodicals. 

Dr. Crosby was living in the midst of a community to whom 
he was greatly endeared, and by whom he was greatly honored, 
when the terrible disaster took place which deprived him of his 
home, and proved the immediate harbinger of his death. On the 
22d of December, he wrote me the following brief letter, giving 
an account of the calamity which had befallen him. 

Cambridgeport, Dec. 22, 1864. 
My dear Friend, — You have doubtless, ere this time, heard the sad 
calamity which has befallen us in the destruction by fire of our house, our 
clothing, our books : yea, almost all our pleasant things are laid waste. We 
escaped in our night-clothes, with merely the addition of stockings, and a 
cloak over our shoulders, through snow, the thermometer at zero. Only one 



20 



besides ourselves, who went forth barefooted, escaped merely with her life. 
At five o'clock in the morning, we were aroused by the cry that the house 
was in flames. A considerable number of articles were taken from the 
lower part of the house ; but that study, the pleasant retreat of many years, 
will be seen no more. Of my whole library, about twenty volumes were 
saved. When enumerating our losses, we end by saying, " No life was 
lost." 

Mrs. Crosby adds kindly greetings to those of your affectionate friend, 

J. Crosby. 

P.S. We are now staying here at Cambridgeport with our eldest son and 
family, whither, as I hope, you will soon direct a letter. Unbounded kind- 
ness has been shown by all around us, and by some whom we have never 
seen. 

Within less than a week from the time this letter was written, 
Dr. Crosby suffered an attack of erysipelas, consequent upon a 
cold, which, within three or four days, terminated his life. His 
remains were removed for burial to Charlestown, where for fifty 
years he had had his home, and had been identified with all . the 
interests of the place, more, probably, than any individual who 
survives him. 

My acquaintance with Dr. Crosby commenced in the summer 
of 1818, just after I was licensed to preach. As I was travelling 
up Connecticut River, for the benefit of my health, I called at his 
home, with an introductory note from one of his friends, which 
secured me a very cordial welcome. I thought then, and have 
never changed my opinion since, that he was one of the most 
genial and good-humored and kind-hearted of men. I preached 
for him twice on the Sabbath (though I believe this was on my 
return, two or three weeks after) ; and, though I knew that his 
standard of orthodoxy even then was much lower than mine, he 
found no fault with either of my discourses, but said much that 
was designed to encourage me. In after-years, in all his inter- 
course with me, he distinctly recognized the fact of his being a 
Unitarian ; but he never manifested in the least degree a contro- 
versial spirit, and I never heard him speak otherwise than kindly 
of his " Orthodox brethren." He was constitutionally cheerful, 
and a great lover of fun ; and I cannot think of a person, whom I 
have ever known, who had a richer fund of all sorts of humorous 
and pithy anecdotes, or who knew better how to apply them, than 
he. My last visit to him was in July, 1864. Instead of finding 
him with his children around him, as I had been accustomed to 



21 



in former years, I found him and his wife the only representatives 
of the family, but living in the same venerable old mansion which 
my visits, thirty and forty years ago, had made familiar to me. I 
passed a delightful day with them, and could not but notice how 
intent he was upon doing every thing in his power to render me 
happy. His recollection of the events of his early years, and of 
many distinguished men long since passed away, seemed perfect. 
He gave me one or two of his manuscript sermons, written during 
the latter part of his ministry, which, like every thing that came 
from his pen, are characterized by the very best taste. I never 
had so deep an impression of his generosity as this visit gave me. 
The portion of Scripture that was read in the morning, in con- 
nection with the family prayer, was the 103d Psalm ; and, after 
-the prayer was over, he remarked to me, that I had hit upon his 
favorite psalm, — that there was no portion of Scripture which he 
read more frequently or with stronger relish. He and I differed 
widely in our religious opinions ; but we were cordial and affection- 
ate friends, and I account it a privilege to render this tribute to 
his memory. w. b. s. 



REV. JAAZANIAH CROSBY, D.D. 

Contributed, by Rev. A. A. Livermore, to the "Christian Inquirer" of 
April 8, 1865. 

The recent departure of this aged and beloved clergyman of our 
faith should not be passed by, without a notice in the journal 
which he loved to read. His beautiful character and sweet Chris- 
tian spirit were possessions, too, to be honored in any communion ; 
and they have shed a lasting perfume on the lovely village where 
he discharged his ministry of more than fifty years. Service to 
the blessed gospel is not in quantity only, though in that he ex- 
celled, but also in quality ; and, in quality, his was of the richest. 
Small alloy dimmed the fine gold, and few discords broke the 
long harmonious strain. 

Dr. Crosby was born in Hebron, N.H., April 3, 1780 ; and he 
died in Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 30, 1864, aged eighty-four years 
and nine months. His parents, Jaazaniah Crosby and Elizabeth 
(Gilson) Crosby, were emigrants from Massachusetts ; the former 



22 



from Billerica, the latter from Pepperell. His academical educa- 
tion was procured at Phillips Exeter Academy ; and he graduated 
at Harvard College, in 1804, in the class of which Andrews 
Norton, Samuel Ripley, Samuel Sewall, Samuel Cooper Thacher, 
and Ashur Ware were members. Like most young men from 
the country who obtain a liberal education, he worked his way 
through difficulties in the pursuit of knowledge to a career of 
usefulness. He passed a year at Exeter Academy as an assistant 
teacher, and pursued his professional studies subsequently in 
Hampton, N.H., with Rev. Dr. Appleton, who was afterwards 
President of Bowdoin College. He was licensed as a candidate 
by the Piscataqua Association, May 11, 1808, After receiving 
calls to settle in Lyndeborough, N.H., and Freeport, Me., he 
finally accepted an invitation to the Congregational Church and" 
Society in Charlestown, N.H. ; and was ordained Oct. 17, 1810, 
his ordination sermon being preached by Rev. Jacob Abbott, of 
Hampton Falls. He continued sole pastor of this church until 
June, 1855, a period of forty-five years ; and he continued to 
preach occasionally after the settlement of his successive col- 
leagues, Rev. Adams Ayer and Rev* Livingston Stone, till 1863, 
or a period of fifty-three years. On the occasion of the half- 
century anniversary, a festival was held, and the long and faithful 
services of their aged pastor were feelingly and beautifully com- 
memorated by his parishioners, townsmen, and friends from 
places near and remote. In 1853 he received the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity from Harvard College. 

Dr. Crosby was married three times; and an. intimate friend, 
Rev. Dr. Sprague of Albany, testifies that " each of his marriages 
has been to him a source of great comfort and blessing." His 
last wife survives him. Eleven children have blessed his home, 
of whom eight survive ; and all do honor to their parents and the 
lovely home of their childhood. Two of the daughters married 
Unitarian clergymen, — one, Rev. Cazneau Palfrey, D.D., of 
Belfast, Me. ; and the other, Rev. William F. Bridge, of Dublin, 
N.H. Others of the family are widely known and esteemed in the 
circles of society and business. 

Dr. Crosby contributed some articles to the periodicals, and 
published a few occasional sermons; one delivered before the 
Legislature of New Hampshire in 1830; one at the dedication of 
his new church, after the old one had been consumed by fire in 



23 



1843 ; one at the semi-centennial of his ordination in 1860 ; and 
a history of the town of Charlestown, in the collections of the 
New-Hampshire Historical Society. 

Originally settled as the Congregational pastor of the South 
Parish of the town, and being liberal in sentiment (other societies 
having seceded from the old parish), Dr. Crosby was left as the 
minister of the Unitarian Society only. Living through a period 
of revolution in sentiment, he did not add to the bitterness of 
sectarianism, but poured upon the waters of strife the oil of charity 
and neighborly kindness. All loved and respected him, even if 
they dissented from his religious views. 

Through the long, continuous years of his faithful ministry, his 
home and his church were the two spheres of his affections, and 
his labors, like Wordsworth's wise ones, 

" True to the kindred points of heaven and home." 

He preached Christianity through the affections ; and, speaking 
from the heart, he reached the heart of his hearers. His dis- 
courses, if not marked by a commanding eloquence, dropped, it 
may be, all the more surely — not being blown about by a windy 
utterance — -into the still, deep places of the soul, where they grew 
like good seed, and bore fruit. His style w r as pure and idiomatic 
English, direct and forcible, and relieved by a tone of quiet 
humor and gentle pathos. He was a sound scholar ; and the in- 
telligence and good taste of the society to which he ministered 
naturally incited him to keep his mind active, and to prepare his 
discourses with care. 

Few parishes realized better fruits of the Spirit, — love, neighbor- 
liness, courteous and refined homes, a high tone of integrity, 
noble men and women, cultivated and high-toned young people ; 
in one word, a Christian civilization. It was the gentle rain and 
the sweet dew of heaven that year by year ripened these har- 
vests. No one who knew Charlestown twenty, thirty, or forty 
years ago, but will bear witness to the remarkably attractive 
and beautiful form of domestic and village society which had 
grown up in that Connecticut-River town, with its majestic colon- 
nades of elms, tasteful dwellings, and charming scenery. It was 
the gospel dye that held those colors so fast, and the fragrance of 
a higher life which gave an aroma to those homes beyond that 
of the roses and sweet honeysuckles which were trellised over 



24 



their doors. The architect or, better, artist who had done the 
work was not perhaps always recognized in it, so great was his 
modesty and self-forgetfulness ; but it was his cunning hand which 
had wrought at the work, and his fine genius of love and sympa- 
thetic sensibility, so ready to gush in tears at every human dis- 
tress, so ready to overflow in laughter and innocent mirth at 
every touch of humor, which had pervaded the place. 

Dr. Sprague says, in his notice of him, that " he was con- 
stitutionally cheerful, and a great lover of fun; and I cannot 
think of a person whom I have ever known who had a richer fund 
of all sorts of humorous and pithy anecdotes, or who knew better 
how to apply them than he." The precept of rejoicing with them 
that rejoice, and weeping with them that weep, never found a 
better subject than Dr. Crosby. 

Then he preached Christianity : he had no creed but that, no 
fine or far-fetched theories, no philosophy or scheme of salvation. 
The love of God through Christ, that was all, and that was 
enough. This simple teaching, the power of God and the wisdom 
of God unto salvation, did its steady work, and transformed the 
earthly into the heavenly image. He neither strove nor cried, 
neither broke the bruised reed nor quenched the smoking flax, but 
kept on, year after year, fully trusting in the sufficiency of the 
gospel, and finding that confidence not misplaced. 

A friend has said of him, " In his pastoral relations, he was 
very urbane ; and his love of children was a striking feature of his 
character. He never passed them without a friendly recognition, 
so that, even to the fulness of his old age, they followed — 

" with endearing wile, 
And plucked his gown to share the good man's smile." 

It was a beautiful life and a beautiful ministry, — so gentle, so 
modest, so manly, so true, so sincere, so sweet, so kind. As has 
been truly quoted in reference to him by one of his old friends 
and admirers, — 

" He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way." 

Some of the younger clergymen were accustomed to call him 
their "bishop," a pleasantry which the good man loved to re- 
ciprocate, by calling them his sons and curates, and signing himself 
in episcopal guise, "J. Charlestown." 



25 



But his children had grown up and entered the world, coming 
back often, however, to cheer the old homestead with their own 
loved voices, and those of their children. A new generation was 
on the stage. The old pillars had fallen : one by one " the 
ancient and honorable " had passed away. Society was changed ; 
but the aged clergyman still lived on in a community which 
cherished him in tenderest love and respect. And we might have 
said, in our short-sighted wisdom, "Here will be the peaceful 
closing scene, still and lovely as the sunset of a long summer's day 
over the winding river's broad and flowery meadows." His health 
was good, his spirits buoyant as ever : his sensibility to the enjoy- 
ment of society was not deadened ; and his was an old age, ripe, 
but not a touch beyond it. 

Only eight days before the event soon to be related, he had 
written to a friend, " With the not very pleasant feeling of use- 
lessness, I am pursuing my noiseless course without much grum- 
bling ; yea, even with a considerable degree of cheerfulness. 
Mrs. Crosby is constantly by my side, and does all that woman 
can do to 4 cheat the tiresome way,' whenever it is tiresome, 
which is very seldom the case. Sed Unquenda tellies, domus, et 
placens uxor" — a prediction soon to be fulfilled : the earth was to 
be left behind, and home, and pleasing wife. 

But we never know the mode and way, at least, of what is 
coming to us in this world. On Thursday, Dec. 15, 1864, at 
about five o'clock in the morning, the family, consisting of the 
doctor and his wife and a girl, were aroused by the cry that 
the house was in flames. The inmates escaped in their night- 
clothes, through the snow, with the thermometer at zero. Cloth- 
ing, library, the gathered, precious heirlooms of years, " all our 
pleasant things," — all, except a few articles in the lower part of 
the house, were soon a prey to the devouring element, and the 
beloved old home sank in ashes, or went up in flame. Dr. 
Crosby wrote to a friend : " That study, the pleasant retreat of 
many years, will be seen no more. Of my whole library, about 
twenty volumes were saved. When enumerating our losses, we 
end by saying, 4 No life was lost.' " A few weeks before, Dr. 
Crosby sent a copy of " Watts' s Works," complete in six quarto 
volumes, to the library of the Meadville Theological School. 
That is saved. 

Dr. Crosby and his wife were made happy in their great 

4 



26 



calamity by numerous attentions from their old friends, letters of 
the kindest, and donations to assist in replacing their losses, so far 
as that might be done. They immediately repaired to Cambridge 
to the home of a son. For a time, Dr. Crosby seemed in his 
usual health and spirits, spoke cheerfully of his loss, and hoped 
in the coming year to occupy a new home on the old spot. But 
it was not to be. He was attacked by erysipelas, produced per- 
haps by the shock and by a cold, soon after his arrival at 
Cambridge. Through his illness, he was the most patient and 
cheerful of men ; and he died as quietly and calmly as a child 
would fall asleep. 

It seems a sad mystery, that event by which he, his home, and 
his family, were swept from the spot where he had spent so many 
happy years, and no trace left save in the memory of his people. 
But a view, full of beauty and consolation, is taken of it, in a 
letter of condolence from a neighboring Unitarian clergyman to 
one of Dr. Crosby's sons-in-law . He says : "In the mournful 
conflagration we all sympathized. What followed does not sur- 
prise me. I wondered that he could survive that night. He 
would have seemed lost in any other house. I shall think of him 
almost as being taken up in a chariot of fire. No stranger hands 
could be suffered, it now appears, in after-years, to desecrate that 
mansion. With all its fragrant memories it turned to flame ; the 
incense of the prayers of nearly threescore years going up in 
sacrifice. Him, too, we can recollect always bright and clear. 
As time passes, your wife will see, that, compared with what con- 
tinued years might have brought, his end was in God's good time." 

The last communication of Dr. Crosby to his people was a 
grateful recognition of their kindness to him and his in their 
overwhelming catastrophe. It was read to the different societies 
in town, on the following Sunday. 

Charlestown, Dec. 17, 1864. 

Dear Friends, — In consequence of our sudden departure from the 
place, we could not personally express our gratitude for your ready sym- 
pathy, assistance, and attention in our time of trouble ; and what we could 
not do verbally, we now do otherwise. 

Will you now accept our warmest gratitude for your immeasurable kind- 
ness, and wait for your full reward in a house not made with hands, a house 
which no flames can devour ? The Lord bless you all ! Accept this as the 
only offering in the power of your friends, ever and sincerely, 

J. Crosby and E. A. Crosby. 



27 



On Tuesday, Jan. 3, 1865, the funeral services were held over 
the remains, which had been conveyed to Charlestown, N.H., from 
Cambridge, where he died. The church was crowded with a new 
generation which had grown up under his ministry : only one 
person who was a member of the church at his ordination survived 
to attend his funeral. His successor, Rev. Livingston Stone, made 
an appropriate address ; and Rev. William O. White, of Keene, 
offered the prayer. So passed away the aged and faithful min- 
ister, one of the best men whom we have ever known, beloved 
and respected by all who came within the circle of his influence. 



LB JL '09 



